My name is Matheus. I’m 23 years old and have around 7+ years of overall experience with software development—ranging from low-level systems to high-level abstractions, native or hybrid architectures, mobile, desktop, and embedded devices.
My journey started when I was 12. Not as an actual developer, but out of pure curiosity: I read and re-read HTML and CSS concepts, and even though I didn’t fully grasp them back then, I managed to build basic things. My first real contact with a programming language was C#, trying to create something minimally fun or functional in Unity.
As expected, I couldn’t pull it off and gave up. At 16, I transitioned into graphic design, getting comfortable with Illustrator, Photoshop, Premiere, and After Effects through a course in a neighboring town. Near the end of that course, I was introduced more thoroughly to HTML, CSS, and JS. Even though it wasn’t the main focus, I owe a lot to my teacher, Pedro Henrique Bezerra, for showing me what was possible with code—and for convincing my dad too :D.
I kicked off my career around that time, focusing on landing a first job as a designer while studying software development on the side. At 18, I landed my first full-time role at Maxmídia as a Graphic Designer. With a standard corporate routine, there wasn’t much downtime to rest and plan for the future. Around March 2021, I decided to take a leap to make the transition happen as fast as possible: I borrowed a Samsung laptop with a 7th-gen i5 and an NVIDIA 920MX. It wasn’t great hardware, but it got the job done, and I went all-in on studying to break into tech.
First role as a Developer
During lunch breaks and late evenings, I studied and tweaked my first Linux setup—a lightweight OpenSUSE distro tailored to what I needed (I honestly lost count of how many times I broke it lol). I learned Flutter, Next.js, React, and Node.js, built personal projects, and made a fast transition since I already had the fundamentals down. By the end of that year, I started my developer career as a freelance full-stack engineer at Cupcode, a software shop in Curitiba. It wasn’t quite what I had envisioned, but it was invaluable as a learning experience. I stayed from December 2021 until February 2022, when I joined Pinó, a digital spin-off from Gazeta do Povo.
After days of intense searching—and I was definitely in need of it (this phrase will pop up a lot)—I came across some job listings on LinkedIn, and Pinó caught my eye. The hiring process took less than a month, as I had to wrap up a few deliverables at the previous gig. I stayed at Pinó for about 3 years and 5 months. It was an incredible journey; I worked alongside people who gave me opportunities I never imagined having so early on. It was the experience that shaped me: I put my knowledge to the test, spoke up with transparency, mentored peers, saw how companies operate internally, and built systems from scratch. I had the privilege of learning AWS hands-on the hard way: one major initiative was orchestrating a full migration of platforms and projects into a brand-new cloud infrastructure. I led the provisioning, testing, rollout, and orchestration end-to-end to ensure zero downtime. It was worth every second. I wrapped up my time at Pinó and accepted an offer from Monaco, where I remain today.
Growing as an engineer
And once again, right when I needed it most, the opportunity at Monaco showed up. I had never seen a company quite like it; it broadened my horizons to challenges I didn’t expect to tackle so soon. I’ve been here for 1 year and 2 months, contributing to multiple fronts and architectures with a founder’s mindset: someone who looks after everything and makes sure it all runs cleanly and reliably. I work on large-scale applications using the tools I enjoy across the whole stack: native and hybrid mobile for Android and iOS, web with Node.js, React and Next, backend with Go and Node, plus DevOps and infrastructure. I also got the chance to lead the technical side of Game Room, something I had always wanted to work on: games!
The hiring process took about 3 weeks, all very fast. My role here is about thinking like a customer, seeing the product from the end user’s perspective and understanding where we can improve. Beyond the technical background, the biggest difference has been the management side: understanding numbers, business metrics, how to gain traction and deliver real value. I’m still grateful to Amaro and Carlão for the opportunity. Monaco shaped me as a professional, a developer and a friend.
And finally, as a sidequest (what a hook :D), I have my own projects and freelance work outside my day job.
My other day-to-day work
I work as a Software Engineer at Techmobi as an ongoing freelancer, using C++, C#, Rust, Go and Flutter. This is where I get my hands dirty directly in raw code. I’ve built and refined complete systems: from native software for Linux and Windows to embedded applications for vehicle telemetry and tracking, including integrations and configuration of highway scales and weighing systems. There were huge challenges and a few sleepless nights haha, but they pay off for every line written. I’ve met experienced professionals, the kind of engineer with enough background to teach the computer how to write the bit :D. I got to plan, implement and debug deeply until everything ran stable in production.
My hobby
As a dev, I should probably have hobbies away from the monitor, but I always end up back in the terminal just because I enjoy it. My first netbook (yes, not even a notebook), a very modest Acer that could barely handle Windows 7, was my gateway into this world: trying to create something and doing my best not to smash the machine in frustration when it froze. I really like FPS games, RPGs and immersive worlds (I once racked up 88 hours in a single week playing nonstop). My long-term goal is to build my own games, where I can apply everything I’ve been learning, from those first experiments all the way down to low-level computing. Today I study game engine architecture and 3D rendering with Vulkan and OpenGL. I know graphics math is tough, but I’ve been putting in the work to master these foundations a little more every day.
I want to turn this space into an open lab to document what I study each week and what I see in the engineering ecosystem. And did you notice I didn’t even mention AI? That’s a topic for another post.
Programming is an art and should be appreciated as a way to show how you interact with the world.